Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1874 — The South—--The President’s Action. [ARTICLE]

The South—--The President’s Action.

The rebels of Louisiana court destruction. They have precipitated themselves into the very jaws of death; for they have violated the Constitution of their State, overturned the law, tod are now brought face tq face with Federal power. With that audacity peculiar to ignorance and passion, Lieut.-Gov. (t) Penn yesterday telegraphed the President declaring sincere loyalty and respect for the United States Government and its officers ! With the lying pretense that he is “supported by the great body, of the intelligent and honest people of the State,” he denounced as a “usurper” the Executive of Louisiana, repeatedly recognized as such by the President- himself. With the hand covered* with the blood of slaughtered citizens he penned the declaration of his “ ability to maintain peace and protect life, liberty, and the equal rights of all classes of citizens.” The. effrontery of" the new rebellion is equal to that of the old. In lggl the South prayed, to be “let alone.” The oligarchists merely desired to destroy the Government, and were astonished that President Lincoln did not follow in the footsteps of James Buchanan and let the Government, which he had sworn to administer, go to pieces 1 Mr. Penn seizes the government of a State by force of arms*; strewing dead and wounded on his pathway to power, and coolly requests the President “to withhold any aid or protection from our [his] enemies tod the enemies of republican rights and of the peace and liberties of the people !” Having violated the peace, having stricken down liberty,,- ..having played the role of a mobocrat until the streets of New Orleans ran with blood, this graceless tnai tor-appeals to the President to be let alone! But this newest despot, this assassin of the liberties of a people, is already answered. From his unreasoning assurance that the President would permit the regularly-consti tuted Government of a State to be de-

stroyed by a band of murderers he has' been rudely awakened. In response to his demand for recognition he has the President’s proclamation invoking the aid and co-operation of all good citizens of Louisiana to uphold the law and preserve the public peace. This proclamation is backed by all the power of the Federal Government, and the Government is the people. It is Mr. Penn who has overthrown the law and broken the public peaeerAnd the Presidential proclamation is notide to all the world that he is a malefactor, to be pursued and taken by Federal troops and punished by Federal courts. He holds the State House and the Court House, and with the desperate men whose comrades of the White Leagu s have desolated Northern Louisiana overawes the people of New Orleans. But he is a usurper, a murderer, and, consequently, an outlaw. He has pitted his against the army and navy of the United States, and all those who stand by him assail the supremacy of law, and must abide the consequences. The miserable * dense of loyalty to the Federal authority will not avail the Louisiana rebels. Loyalty to the Federal authority involves loyalty to the State authority, and it is the latter which has been stricken down by Penn and his rebel crew.

An astonishing feature of the situation is the fact that the leading merchants of New Orleans are as mad as their desperate leaders. The Colton Exchange closed its doors yesterday at one o’clock “as a mark of sympathy with the movement to establish the legitimate government of Louisiana!” - And the Picayune declares that “ there is no one who dares to brave the indignation of a great people roused at last .” But to all these jubilations of the conspirators and their wretched dupes comes the response of the President, solemnly ordering a restoration of the lawful authorities of the State; and, in addition, the remark by the Executive that the people of Louisiana had misjudged if they thought that a resort to violence on their part would pass by unheeded by the Government.” So also have the insurgents of Louisiana “misjudged” if they think a new rebellion will be suffered to gain a foothold for further operations by carefully avoiding outrages upon Federal property and professing loyalty to Federal authority. For the President also says: “ Prompt measures will suppress further disturbances, and a similar course would have saved the country from the late rebellion. ” The President evidently comprehends the gravity of the situation, and fully realizes the import of the Louisiana movement; hence he likens it to the rebellion of 1861. There is ' her evidence of alarm on the part o ' ’ President, in the fact that he suppli anted his formal proclamation by military orders, written by his own hand, addressed to the commander at New Orleans, directing him to preserve life an<t,protect the peace to the best of his ability. The proclamation is a recognition or Gov. Kellogg as the legal Governor of Louisiana; the military orders to the commander of United States forces at New Orleans constitute a military occupation of the city by the Federal Government. The next step will be an order dispersing the rioters who now hold the State House, and the next the turning of Federal cannon on the enemy equally of the State Government of Louisiana and of the Government of the United States. To this complexion it must come, and that speedily. There is no retreat, and if blood must flow, let it flow from the veins of the rebels who a second time raise their hand against the sovereign authority of the people, as expressed in the form of State and Federal Governments. If necessary, not only Louisiana, but every late rebel State, must be again placed under military control, and so held until the treason of their people is burned and purged away.— Chicago In-ter-Ocean, Sept. 16.